Top 5 Start & Sit For Your First Playoff Week

Yep, the playoffs are starting.  For me in my “money league”, Thursday night put me behind the proverbial 8-ball when my opponent got 3 touchdowns from Phillip Rivers and I forgot to click “submit” on my roster button leaving Darren Sproles who I picked off waivers to replace Marion Barber.  Sproles stayed on the bench and scored twice.  Don’t make the same mistake.  Here are 5 to start and 5 to sit for week 14.

5 to Start:

Kurt Warner – Against a very weak St. Louis team Kurt Warner should be able to put up very good numbers.  Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald should excel and if you have Steve Breaston and your WR’s are weak, start him too.

Matt Cassel - Last weeks numbers were pedestrian for Cassel compared to his numbers over the last few weeks but you can point your finger at Randy Moss and Jabar Gaffney for dropping sure TD passes and a couple of first downs.  Moss is a great match-up this week against Seattle and he verbally is blaming himself for last week.  Start them both.  (Wes Welker is playing this week too).

Tennessee defense – They are playing the Browns who will have a QB who has played only a handful of series.  Ken Dorsey steps in for the IR’ed Derek Andersen.

Thomas Jones – Jones had a good game last week in the Jets loss to Denver and this week will face off against another poor running defense in the San Francisco 49′ers.  There is no reason for him to be on your bench at this point in the season.

Michael Turner – Sure Adrian Peterson gets the Detroit Lions but sometimes the Lions play better than what they really are.  Michael Turner has been nothing short of excellent this year and fantasy owners have been very happy.  Turner will go after a reeling New Orleans team who hasn’t been doing well against the run.

5 to Sit:

Marion Barber –  He is not listed as out for the game but he is battling a toe injury that has kept him out of practice all week.  He will face the number 1 defense in the league this week when the Cowboys face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers…not an ideal match-up when he is healthy.

Brian Westbrook – If you got him you have to start him, but if you a good RB corp you may want to look at the match-ups of the others.  The NY Giants are playing great defense and in the up and down world of Donavin McNabb, this would be his down week.  If McNabb is down, so is Westbrook.  No 4 TD week this week.

Brandon Marshall – The KC Defense is not very good, which of course is one of the many reasons they are 2-11 this season.  However, in a division game the Chiefs can do anything and they loathe the Denver Broncos.  Jay Cutler will try and work the field but the Chiefs should find a way to shut down Marshall making rookie RB Peyton Hillis either beat them on the ground or force Cutler to find a different receiver.

Terrel Owens – Owens will try and work the field but Tony Romo may not have enough time to allow Owens to get behind the coverage of the Steelers.  Troy Palamalou will be cheating the entire game over to the side of Owens and Roy Williams is not threat opposite the star WR.  The Steelers will force the Cowboys to use the underneath but time for Romo will be a factor.  Owens is not a good play this week unless you just don’t  have anyone else.